There may be no glory in digging graves, and that’s fine with Dan Miller and Tom English.

But Miller, Park Township sexton, and English, his predecessor, have earned plenty of respect for the fact they still do the task with shovels.

“It’s just the way Tom did it for the 30 years I helped him and it’s the way I do it now as township sexton,” Miller said. “The way we see it, the township could put the money into a Bobcat, but why spend the money when we can dig it ourselves?”

Miller, 51, is modest about the task being done with a shovel. He and English, 60, said it’s fortunate that Park Township’s five cemeteries sit on loose and easy-to-move soil. Ease of dirt-removal has helped keep the throwback style of grave digging in place.

Miller usually works alone, but frequently informs English about a job and lets him decide if he wants to lend a hand.

English served as township sexton for 35 years before deferring to Miller in 2006. Over the years, he has developed a quick comeback to an often-misstated comment.

“People almost always ask if we really (dig gravesites) by hand, and I tell them no, we use a shovel,” English said. “We’d be here a long time if we dug by hand.”

When the two work together, a standard gravesite takes about two hours to complete, Miller said. Working alone, without distractions or conversation, the task requires about 90 minutes.

They lay plywood boards on the ground to outline a 42-inch-wide area for a standard casket. With an open-top trailer parked at the edge of the site, the two go to work. They’ve dug enough graves together that, much like longtime dance partners, they remain fully cognizant of the other, working back-to-back and side-to-side and don’t get in each other’s way.

Once the upper layer of grass is removed, the hole and its rectangular shape begin to form.

Miller said it took working on a gravesite with his son to realize how much he appreciates having English for a workmate.

“I love my son, no question, but what a mess he made,” Miller said, laughing as he recalled the incident. “He was tossing dirt every which way, we were in each other’s way … I really missed Tom that day.”

Roots of collaboration

English and Miller grew up neighbors in the Moorepark neighborhood. One day back in the late 1970s, English asked Miller if he wanted to earn a little extra money and help dig a grave. It marked the start of a long, harmonious professional relationship.

Page 2 of 3 - In addition to helping Miller, English is now a groundskeeper at Three Rivers Health. Miller, meanwhile, is a tool-and-die maker at Weber Specialties in Schoolcraft.

The sexton position pays $350 per grave, with $375 compensation for work done on a Saturday and a $500 premium on Sundays and holidays. There is no grave diggers union, as far as the two know.

Balancing the workload

When it comes to availability, Miller and English avoid being out of the area at the same time.

“I hunt and Tom snowmobiles, so we aren’t usually on vacation at the same time,” Miller said. “I’m unavailable in November and Tom is usually up north later in the winter.”

Park Township officials offered to buy English a Bobcat when he decided to step down as sexton, but the enticement didn’t change his mind about retiring. He and Miller agreed that the work involved in transporting a Bobcat is more trouble than what it would be worth.

Plus, a grave’s location might be in a difficult-to-reach spot with a Bobcat, so the two are content to keep their $75 shovels.

They deal with extreme cold in a manner just as old-fashioned as their traditional work approach: they make a fire in a horse tank over the site to be dug and let it burn for about 24 hours, long enough to thaw the layer of frost.

In extreme heat, they keep a cooler of cold water handy and imbibe liberally.

Their work usually begins with about 48 to 72 hours of advance notice, typically given from a funeral director. English said the busiest period they had was eight graves over a two-week period in the dead of winter several years ago.

A cliche laid to rest

Contrary to public perception, a grave is not dug six-feet deep.

“The very first grave I dug, I dug all of six feet and the previous sexton looked down at me in this six-foot hole and told me to never dig it that deep again,” English said. “I also learned it’s not easy getting out of a six-foot hole.”

As a gauge, they reference a point on the handle of their shovels to establish appropriate depth. For a cross-reference, they also know the depth is about right after three full trailer loads of dirt have been unearthed.

Miller said he shows up at the cemetery a few hours before a funeral to make sure everything is in order for a burial. He intentionally remains elusive during interment.

“I have to fill the grave and top it off after everyone is gone, so I just hang out off in the distance,” he said. “It’s also about being respectful for the family.”

Page 3 of 3 - To Miller’s knowledge, he and English are the only sextons in St. Joseph County to dig graves with a shovel.